Shady Shell practices, buyer beware.
So I wanted to tell you a quick little story. This past weekend, I went to a party in HB, that’s Huntington Beach for those of you that don’t live in OC. Oh yeah, OC is Orange County, as in Orange County, California. Anyway, HB, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, and their surrounding cities usually have lower gas prices than say, Irvine, or Newport Beach, and other South County cities.
On the way back from the great Superbowl party, I figured I’d get gasoline in HB and save a few bucks. I drove past a few stations. Their prices were really great, somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.73 - $2.89. Back in Irvine, prices that same day early in the afternoon were around $3.10 - $3.25 depending on the location. You can see that it could be a significant savings when you add it up; around $52.00 for a tank versus 43.68 for my 16 gallon tank. I missed a couple of the turn-ins for some of the stations, but eventually decided to go into a a Shell station, they had the best price; or so I thought.
The place was packed, they have those 2 pump per row setups, with I think 4 or 5 rows. Most of the rows had at least one car waiting. After some clever maneuvering I found a pump that wasn’t being used and got gas as I would normally do. I never pay with cash, unless they don’t accept plastic; the convenience of using my atm card is huge so I use it whenever possible. Couple of minutes later I was getting ready to leave. As I was waiting for traffic to clear and pull out of the Shell lot I glanced at my receipt and I thought, WTF!? The price said $2.83/gallon. Then we realized that they had basically tricked us.
You see, I came in expecting the advertised price of $2.77 and so I thought that’s what I would be paying. Oh, but no such luck! They have a small unlit sign at the very top of their big sign that says “cash” or “credit”. Conveniently for them, the signs that face the streets and traffic are all the ones that say “cash” and you don’t see the “credit” ones until you are in the station. I think this is bullsh*t, The sign is so small, and dark that you can’t really see it. I don’t know about you, but if you were to ask me, this is false advertisement. At the very least, this is a very shady practice and if not illegal, it is certainly questionable. I wonder if Arco, Texco, Citgo, Mobil, Chevron or any of the other stations around do the same thing.
Next time you see a great price for gas, double check it and make sure you’re not getting taken by some scam like I did.
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That is a shady thing to do… And Shell is usually a couple cents more for the premium gas then most other places around.
But still, $2.83 is a great price for gas.
Maybe I’ll start taking a detour on my way home through HB so I can get cheaper gas!
I never noticed about the difference in prices on premium gas. I don’t need premium gas so I tend to only look at the lower priced type of gas.
Yes, I have to agree that $2.83 around here is a good price, but it wasn’t cool to think that I was getting an even lower price. To find good prices you may have to drive in a couple miles, I think the stations near the freeway have higher prices.
Dang that’s a great price for gas. I never knew gas stations actually charge different prices depending on how you pay. Just another thing to consider when filling up I suppose.
Chava
Yeah. HB, GG, FV and all those places have pretty cheap gas. And I guess if you’re cool with going in and waiting in line to pay cash then you can get the really cheap price.
Like CjB said though, cash or credit… the price was good. Which is the main reason why I didn’t go in and complain.